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About This Quiz
How did Saul Hudson become Slash? And where did the name Meat Loaf come from? Test your knowledge of musical nicknames with this rockin' quiz!
Don't pass him by: Drummer/songwriter Ringo Starr played a vital role in the Beatles' success. What's his birthname?
Robert Spriwell
Richard Starkey
A love of finger jewelry inspired the name "Ringo." And earlier in his career, Starkey's drum solos were called "Starr Time."
Ricky Smith
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Fill in the blank: Marvin Lee Aday of Dallas, Texas later found fame and fortune as __________.
Flea
Axl Rose
Meat Loaf
Legally, his first name is "Michael" now. But Aday says he was once detained for six hours in Germany because he had "Meat Loaf" on his passport. He was given the nickname by a football coach in high school because of his hefty weight.
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Stevie Wonder's stage name used to be longer. What was he called originally?
Little Stevie Wonder
At age 13, Stevland Morris enjoyed his first No. 1 Billboard hit. He dropped the word "Little" from his stage name in the 1960s when he turned 15.
Big Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder-Fingertips
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The name "Alice Cooper" was allegedly borrowed from which of the following people?
a gothic horror novelist
a seventeenth-century witch
Supposedly, Vincent Damon Furnier changed his legal name to "Alice Cooper" in 1974 after a witch who contacted him via a Ouija board.
an old girlfriend
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Why did Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr. change his name to John Denver?
He was born in Denver.
He loved the Rocky Mountains.
Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr. originally hailed from Roswell, New Mexico and said he chose the stage name "because my heart longed to live in the mountains." That would be the Rocky Mountains surrounding Denver, Colorado. Denver maintained a home in Aspen, Colorado, for all his adult life.
He hated his birth name so he threw a dart at a map and that was where it landed.
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Guitarist Saul "Slash" Hudson says his nickname was coined by which of these actors?
Seymour Cassel
Growing up, Hudson got to know Cassel (a familiar face in Wes Anderson movies) who was the dad of a friend. Cassel called the boy "Slash" because of his high-energy levels.
Rick Baker
Val Kilmer
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David Bowie stopped using his real name (at least, professionally) because he didn't want to be confused with ______.
David Crosby
Davy Jones (of the Monkees)
"Nobody's going to make a monkey out of you," said his manager. David Robert Jones was the late artist's legal name. Bowie was a tribute to Jim Bowie, the Texas rebel in the movie "The Alamo."
Dave Matthews
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What nickname did Pat Benatar give her husband and longtime musical partner, Neil Giraldo?
"Harpoon"
"Spyder"
The pair once came across a black and yellow sign that said "Spyder's Dinner Club" and the rest is history.
"Gopher"
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A founding member of Queen, singer Farrokh Bulsara was better known as Freddie Mercury. Where'd that name come from?
He borrowed it from Roman mythology.
It's a reference to one of his own song lyrics.
No one really knows.
While "Freddie" was a nickname from school, no one is sure why "Mercury" was added. It might've been a nod to the Roman god — or an allusion to the song "My Fairy King," which has a line about "mercury, mercury."
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Bono's rock star moniker was inspired this humble establishment:
the corner laundromat
a local Italian restaurant
a hearing aid store
A friend gave Paul Hewson the name after the local Bonavox hearing aid store. Initially he didn't like the name until he found out it stood for "good voice." Bono Vox was soon shortened to just Bono.
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You Got:
/10
Gabe Ginsberg/Phillip Faraone/Getty Images